Back in Watsonville

Wow! That was a vacation. After three action packed weeks, it is good to be home. We did and saw so much while we were in Thailand and now we are back home in Watsonville, doing so little. :) We got home in the middle of the night on Tuesday, the 26th. Miles picked us up at the airport and drove us back to a clean house. We had Miles, Kyle and Courtney each stay at our house for a week while we were gone, to make sure the dog and plants didn't die. Shanga is a lucky dog, and she was taken care of. Also, we came home to masses of Arugula and Butter Lettuce in our garden. SALAD TIME! Thanks for holding down the fort, guys!
Chris will be going back to work tomorrow and I will be driving down south for some baby ogling (shout out to my boy Griffin!) and family time. So, before we get busy with life again, allow me to bring to a close what has been our first blogging experience...

We left you last in Chiang Mai, where we had been exploring the old city on foot. Well, after all that walking, we chose to spend the next day just "hanging". We went zip-lining with a company called "jungle flight". They picked us up at our hotel and we hopped in a van with two Chinese girls and an Australian couple. We drove for about 40 minutes on the highway, leaving the big city and headed for the hills. Our driver was a maniac and would pass any vehicle at any time. When we started going uphill on a one-lane mountain road, he started hauling ass, honking his horn to warn others of his reckless approach. The ride up was more frightening than any zip line. 

The course was long, with 22 platforms. The longest individual line was 320 feet. That's some solid hang time! There were 2 places where we got to do free-falls straight down 20 meters and 40 meters. It was a laughing, screaming good time. After a couple hours of zipping, with a little jungle hiking thrown in, we stopped for a lunch of Masuman curry, soup and fruit.


The next day, we woke up early to get into another adventure van, this time with three young people from Michigan and a couple from Norway. Our ride out into the country was an hour and a half on this day. But, our driver was also less aggro, so it was pleasant in comparison. Our first stop was in a hill tribe village where we got on out mountain bikes and took off on a mostly uphill ride through the jungle. Before setting us up with bikes and helmets, the guide encouraged us to walk through the village far a few minutes. Which we did, reluctantly.

You see, a lot of the tours in Chiang Mai include a stop at a tribal village. Many of these are "long neck" tribes, in which women wear coils of metal around their necks, lengthening them. While I find this and other cultural practices interesting, I feel I have no business gawking at people in their own village. I don't have anything to offer them, or do I?

In this particular village, 5 or 6 old ladies of the tribe had set up shop in the road. Each had a small stall with woven hats, wooden frogs, and other crafts that you could buy at any market in Chiang Mai or Bangkok. Whenever a van full of tourists gets into town, the old ladies post up near their stall and call out to you "looky looky!!" as you pass by. I didn't want to pose for a picture with the "indigenous looking" old lady, or buy any crap. So, after doing a walk through on the suggestion of our guide, I just took a seat and waited for the bikes to get unloaded.

When they did, the guide gave us a quick safety and bike talk, assuring us that the trail would be "flat, mostly down". We then proceeded downhill for about 500 meters, then slowly crawled uphill for then next 4 km!

The Norwegian couple was ahead of us the whole time. When we reached the elephant camp, we were soaked with sweat and felt like we had had our first real workout in Thailand. That guide totally lied to us about the trail :). We were a bit grumpy after the 3rd steep hill. But, we forged ahead and had a pretty nice ride overall.

After the biking, we climbed up onto an elephant for a ride along the river.

At one point, we stopped at a place where they had sugar cane and bananas for sale and everyone bought their elephant a snack and fed it as it reached up with it's trunk.

 We enjoyed the ride, although we we not too jazzed on the way the elephants lived. An elephant ride is a part of almost every tour available. Some companies have nicer elephant camps. But, I chose this one for another reason. The white water rafting was the best part!

 After an action-packed day like this, we went straight back to our hotel and relaxed by the pool, leaving only to eat at the closest restaurant, an Italian place next to the hotel which had excellent wood fired pizza.

On our last day in Chiang Mai, we walked down to a spa run by the director of the Chiang Mai Women's Prison. We had read that one of the best, cheapest places to get a massage was at the prison. But, this was plenty cheap, near our hotel, and had a bit more ambiance than the prison itself. This spa was established to help ex-inmates transition back into society as productive citizens. Works for me! I got a 1.5 hour massage, including herbal hot compress as well as a manicure and pedicure. Chris got a 2 hour massage and foot reflexology session. All together, we paid 750 Baht (less than $25!) My pedicure still looks good, too!

Pampered and rested, we left our hotel at 3:00 in a taxi headed for the train station. We went to 7-11 an stocked up on snacks before boarding an overnight train to Bangkok.

 On board, we met a guy named Dave who lived in Monterey for the past 8 years. Small world! He works as a contracted medic for the army and is stationed in Afghanistan. He talked to us for a while and showed us photos from his base and his recent stop in Dubai. We ordered some food and beer on the train and settled in for sleep in our cozy little bunks.

This train ride was much longer than our first, and in the morning we had a few hours to look out the window and see the sights.

Around 11pm, we arrived in Bangkok to the sounds of a Red Shirt demonstration. An election had taken place the day before. They seemed to be celebrating a victory.

We worked our way out to the street and asked a taxi driver to take us to the "Admiral Premier", the hotel we had booked. None of the drivers at the station knew where it was, so we crossed the street to a cafe to use the internet. It seems there are hundreds of hotels in Bangkok and new ones popping up everyday. So, even though we were staying in a big, high-rise hotel, it was not well known. But, while consulting a map at the cafe, a friendly waiter explained that we could get take the subway there. So, we did! No taxi needed. Getting off the subway and the 5 blocks to the hotel was more difficult that we had imagined, though. The streets are rarely marked and crossing the main road is nearly impossible without going either underground, through the subway terminal, or overhead via the "interchange". Anyhow, we made it to our hotel before lunch, showered, set our stuff down and headed out to see the Chatuchak Weekend Market. Before we left, we locked up all our valuables in Chris' "Pack-Safe" bag. This was one of the smartest travel purchases we made.

It's a backpack with this bag inside of it. This bag is made of a super-tough nylon with steel wire mesh sewn in, so it's "slash-proof". Then the top has metal grommets through which this steel cable runs, so you can cinch it and lock it up within the backpack it you leave your bags at the front desk for while. Or, you can secure it to something in your room (like the sink). We kept the computer, iPad, passports, and other valuables locked up when we left to explore the weekend market...

This market was HUGE! We walked through it for an hour, without leaving the clothing section! They had hundreds of stalls of vintage clothing, rock T-Shirts, torn Levis, western shirts and hip sneakers. We kept walking through the craft stalls, housewares, antiques and back. We stopped for fresh coconut water and listened to a little blue grass (Or, shall I say, "Brue Grass"?) jam session. 

After walking through the maze of shops for hours, we took the skytrain back to our hotel and relaxed in the rooftop pool.

The next day, our final day in Thailand, we did some major shopping. We went to MBK, the 7 story mall we had scoped out earlier in our trip. We spent 8 or 9 hours buying a suitcase and filling it with souveniers, knock off designer jeans, funny T-shirts and weird snack foods to bring back home. We took a break to bowl a game in the mall's bowling alley and we had lunch at Hachiban Ramen, one of my favorite meals in Thailand. It's just a fast food place for really tasty Ramen noodles with meat and other add-ins. Yum!

Our flights home were long and uncomfortable. Fortunately, they got us home on time, with our suitcase and we were back home, scratching Shanga by 12:30am. The first food we had back at home was Taco Bell. Granted, it was one of the only things open that late. We couldn't sleep until a little after 3, with the aid of one of the sleeping pills we got from the travel doctor.

Since we've been home, we have taken Shanga to to beach and riding bikes along the levy near the strawberry fields. They smell so good right now.

Our vacation was everything we had hoped it would be, and then some. We got to do so many fun things and see so many different places. We have some great memories to keep and we are glad to be home. Thanks for reading!

So Long, Siam!

Well, our trip has come to an end, and we're ready to get home. We're leaving for the airport in an hour or so for our long trip home. We'll post some more pictures and fill you all in on the end of our trip then.
Thanks for reading everybody!
-Chris & Kate

The Adventure Continues!!!

Hello again! Only one week left here in the "Land of Smiles" and we are soaking it up in Chiang Mai. Since out last post, we have been kayaking in Mangrove forests amongst limestone sea stacks and zip-lining through the jungle. We have also strolled through some pretty cool night markets and thrown back a few beers in some western themed bars, complete with confederate flags and rock n roll music. This place is a trip!
So, after sitting in the hotel in Krabi for a day, drinking soda water and eating plain rice, I was ready to hit up Krabi Town. We took a cab to the downtown area, which was on the water.

You can see the rad limestone pillars the rise up from the sea in the distance. We walked along the seaboard for awhile then headed over to the night market, which had stalls selling weird fruits like durian and tons of food, both gross and scrumptious. They had everything from dim sum to this orange slushy that looked so tasty (looks can be deceiving).

 Chris tried some spicy chicken satay and I settled on the old Pad Thai standby. I had to give my stomach a gradual reintroduction to Thai food.
Next, we went to this super kitschy western bar called "Buffalo" where the young Korean owner served us on the wooden deck out front. The stereo played 70s soft rock hits like REO Speedwagon.

 
 We turned in early because we had plans to go Kayaking early the next morning. This was one of our favorite parts of the trip so far.

The water was so still and peaceful, the air was a bit cooler than on land, and we saw a giant jellyfish, a 3 foot long water lizard, and quite a few monkies chillin' in the trees (or in your kayak if you let 'em). The kayak trip was 3 hours and only 600 Baht per person (less than $20).

The same day as the kayak trip, we took a 2 hour taxi ride to the Phuket airport and flew to Chiang Mai. We got here around 11pm. So, we just checked into our hotel, walked down to the mini mart for a couple of beers and went to sleep.

The next day, we set out on foot to see this beautiful city. We are staying in the old city, which is a square surrounded by a moat. It's pretty easy to navigate and we saw some sweet sculptures and temples in the morning.

We continued our walk through the afternoon, stopping for some drinks at Roof Top Bar, for a nice view of the sunset and the city below.

Next, we walked down to the Night Bazaar, where we did some wheeling and dealing for cool Thai Fisherman pants (You know you want some).

After All that walking, we were too tired to read menus and find good Thai food. So, we went all American and said "Sa Was Dee" to good old Ronald.

The McDonald's here does 24 hour free delivery, no minimum order! They also have unique menu items like pineapple pie, corn pie, and chicken terriyaki.

Today, we went on our jungle zip-line adventure. But, I have been typing for too long. So, ya'll gonna have to wait for those pics! Tomorrow, we will be riding elephants, mountain biking a white-water rafting. Stay tuned friends!

Back on the move

It’s a quiet Monday in Krabi, Thailand. It seems like no one is here. The beaches and hotels are empty. We arrived here yesterday afternoon and I have been battling a case of food poisoning for the past 24 hours. YUCK. When we got to our hotel, I was not ready to go anywhere. So, Chris and I sat on the bed and proceeded to undo my braids. After 5 days of tight corn rows, my hair was a frizzy, tangled mess. Which made for good pics.

Taking the braids out felt good. But, my stomach still feels bad.

So, I am sitting here in the Air Conditioned hotel room while Chris is braving the heat to get some lunch. I’ll be having rice a soda water, which is all I’ve eaten in Krabi.

Aside from the past 24 hours on the toilet, this week has been great. Our stay at View Cliff resort was just right. Again, I think we were the only guests there at the time. So, we had the beautiful beach cove all to ourselves.

 The beach at View Cliff 

 The balcony outside our room  

The hotel was great, but we didn’t spend much time there because we were busy diving around and exploring the island on our rental scooter.

This is the patio of the dive school where we would sit each morning and drink a coffee while our instructor reviewed the reading with us. The view was lovely.

  

The last two days of diving, we explored the ship wreck of the HTMS Sattakut (A US Navy WWII ship) that was sunk late in 2011 as an artificial reef. Even after only being sunk for 9 months, it was already home to many fish and some corals too. After being out on the water for 5 or 6 hours with only pineapple and tea, all of the divers would look forward to being greeted by the samosa man. I know Samosas aren’t Thai. But, these were so good and only 20 Baht a piece (60 cents) YUM!

Kate enjoys a samosa

The last day of diving was the best. We went on a night dive! The boat departed the dive school at sunset, and on board were 6 of the people we had been diving with all week. It felt like we were amongst friends! There was a couple from Mumbai, India (Bino and Antima) a couple of guys from Australia and a man from England named Steve. Once the boat reached the dive spot, we swam around and waited for the sun to set. We dove with big underwater flashlights and on that one dive Chris and I saw a huge turtle, 5 or 6 blue-spotted rays and a CUTTLEFISH!! We had really hoped we’d get to se a cuttlefish and we were the only ones on the boat that saw it. At one point, our instructor had us stop on the sea floor and turn our flashlights off to watch the bioluminescent plankton swirl in front of us as we moved our hands through the water. FAR OUT!

Fully satisfied with our diving experience, we spent the next couple of days just hanging out. The bar/restaurant near our hotel had good food and ambience.

We had dinner there, played some pool and met a really nice couple (Kat and Pat) from Quebec, Canada who have been traveling for months. They enjoyed watching Game of Thrones at the restaurant, so we immediately hit it off. 

Having the rental scooter was great, it really allowed us to explore the island, and at only 150 baht per day, it was cheaper than one cab ride.

      

Our last night on Koh Tao, we went to the Rasta Bar for some drinks, and a few games of Jenga and Connect 4 with the bartender. Just about when Kate had enough to drink, our friends from the dive school showed up and asked us if we wanted to go out with them. Of course we did, so we hopped back on scooter (I was sober) and followed them down to Sairee beach to Lotus Bar, which was hopping with a bunch of wasted Europeans drunk on buckets (literally) of tropical booze. We grabbed some pillows on the sand and watched some awesome fire dancers while enjoying  a bucket of our own, and some pad thai. Around 11:30 or so Andy, a Norwegian dive instructor, had to leave to pick his Thai girlfriend up from work. Bino and Antima kept the party going, inviting us to follow them to Babaloo, an extremely cool bar on a secluded beach.  We checked out the funky bar which had an ice chest full of beer and live fish, and sat out on the beach for one last drink.  As Kate and Antima decided to test out the hammocks slung over the water, Bino and I made bets about who would fall in first. We both agreed it would be Kate. Yet somehow she made it out unscathed, and just coherent enough to get into the taxi. We left the scooter at the bar, as I had finally caught up with Kate. It was a great way to end our stay on Koh Tao, and the next morning we were back on the high speed catamaran headed to Koh Samui.

Goodbye Koh Tao! We love you!

After spending the past 10 days or so on such a tiny island (1 mile wide and 2 miles long) we felt like we were arriving at a big city on Koh Samui (even though its only 15 miles across) We checked into a little bungalow resort called Secret Garden. It too was located directly on the beach, and gave us a great view of the sunset.

Kate and I had dinner here, which was just okay, but unfortunately not worth it, as this is where Kate got food poisoning.  The next morning we got up, had breakfast and headed to the airport for a 45 minute plane ride to Krabi. Kate spent 20 of those minutes in the lavatory.

Another 20 minute cab ride later, and we arrived at our new hotel, The Emerald Garden in Ao Nang.  The hotel is really nice, there’s a couple of pools and tropical vegetation everywhere. We’ve spent the past 24 hours lounging around the pool and in the room, giving Kate time to recuperate. 

She’s feeling a lot better now, and we’re gonna head into town tonight to check out Krabi and grab some food. Tomorrow we’re going sea kayaking in the morning, and then heading over to Phuket for a plane ride up to Chiang Mai.